Supreme Court Moves to Extend Ballot Deadline in Pennsylvania

Thanks to the global coronavirus pandemic, the way in which Americans vote in 2020 will be unlike any other time in our history.

For starters, those who are considered “at risk” individuals are looking to avoid long lines and crowded polling stations, and will undoubtedly spur on a major increase in the amount of ballots that are mailed in.  This is something that President Trump has railed against, believing that this system if ripe for fraud, despite the fact a great many of these “at-risk” voters are going to be voting Republican, at least demographically speaking.

In Pennsylvania, one of the most important battleground states in 2020, there were concerns that some ballots wouldn’t arrive by election day.  The Supreme Court has now indicated that this is just fine. 

The Supreme Court on Monday night allowed Pennsylvania election officials to count mail-in ballots received up to three days after Election Day, refusing a Republican request to stop a pandemic-related procedure approved by the state’s supreme court.

The court’s action involved a seemingly arcane voting practice and carried outsize importance because of the state’s pivotal role in the upcoming presidential election. It prompted a fierce battle between the state’s Democrats and Republicans.

The lengthy time that the court spent adjudicating the issue seems to indicate that the 8 justices on the bench were attempting to construct some sort of compromise that just didn’t quite make it.

The late-arriving ballots could extend the drama of the 2020 election for several days – something that President Trump is unlikely to take comfort in, having already declared his concerns about the possibility months ago.